Or were they all on the same level of sucesss

These 3 artist for me were some of the biggest superstars of the 80's as well as the early 90's ( well Prince anyway).

Diccuss your thoughts

In his prime he was, his prime didn't really last too long though as by the 90's he was a fading star and the others took over

At his peak he was without a doubt. Everything changed in 1992 though. The child abuse allegations and his image just became a national joke. He did have that successful Histroy era in the mid 90s but it was no where near his previous highs. After that he sort of faded away from the music scene until his death when his music got a revival.

Madonna has always been above Prince though in terms of success. Prince in the end turned out to be a bit of a one decade artist. Though to his credit he can still sell out tours. His new music just doesn't impact the charts.

The allegation charges against MJ were in the summer of 1993.

The real question is: who's the last one standing?

Oh yeah!! well thats when it all started to fall apart for him.

As 'morbid' as it sounds...I think Madonna and Princes deaths will show who the bigger star was in the end.

I actually think the opposit. I think it will take Madonna's death for people to realise just what she did for females in pop music. With death comes retrospective thoughts and renewed interest. Madonna's back catalog is so massive. I expect half of these media luvvies who hated Madonna when she was alive to be fawning over her once she passes.

They are obviously not as big as they were back in their heyday but it looks like Madonna the last one standing.

But think about it- MJ would have probably been in the mainstream had he made it past the This Is It Tour and i personally feels he would release more music. but it wasn't to be.

Prince has got a loyal fanbase who come to see him on each on his concerts every now and then so that pefrectly fine for him.

I always thought music wise that Michael took the lead because of his work in 1979-1987. Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad are all brilliant IMO whereas his later albums Dangerous and HIStory are lacking but I always thought you could make a great 42 minute album by taking Jam, In The Closet, Remember The Time, Heal The World, Black Or White from Dangerous and combining them with Stranger In Moscow and You Are Not Alone from HIStory.

back in the 80s each had a huge amount of success eclipsing each other, but at different times

so thriller was first, then purple rain took over, followed by a pile more prince albums that didn't have the same impact, madonna's got well known more around 85, but it was perhaps closer to 87 with like a prayer that she at her peak. after bad, MJ's success just declined, particularly after the child abuse cases in the 90s

it's interesting if you look back to 1985. who would have thought that 25 years later MJ would be dead after not releasing any music in about 10 years, madonna would be the most succesful out the lot and still making hit records and having huge tours, and prince would be an indie artist and give up swearing and doing songs about sex

i don't think prince's death would have anything like the impact of MJ or even madonna. he's alienated his fanbase so much, those that are left are immune to his crap, and fortunately few of them are nutters like the fans that MJ and madonna has. fortunately his talent and critical acclaim and huge back catalogue has allowed him to make a good living by playing huge shows, so he can still fart around making albums that no-one wants to hear, or that he won't release, and still force them down peoples throats by getting cd's delivered to their home with newspapers etc. his last album hit 20 million stores in europe in a week, with 3.5 million hitting UK homes in a single day, and he probably made more money for that than madonna will with her current cd with the usual % per cd sold. considering he did the same thing a few years previously, he's done well to repeat it and do even better the second time around. i don't think madonna's death will have half the impact as MJ as she doesn't have anything near the same level of nutter fanatics as MJ did, and she seems to be relatively fit, so unless she suffered an accident, i don't think she's going to die soon. same with prince, who looks exactly the same as he did 25 years ago. i think prince will live longer than any of his fans, just to piss off the ones that are waiting for him to die so they will get to hear the unreleased stuff in his vaults

out the 3 of them, i think madonna did the best considering her lack of any real talent. if prince didn't piss off everyone he worked with, he could have been the biggest of them all. but then he wouldn't be the prince we know. if MJ didn't get involved with drugs and plastic surgery and all the kiddie nonsense, he could perhaps have also done much better. he was perhaps the biggest waste of talent of the lot. he never got to realise his live performances, instead relying on miming for a show, which is inexcusable for a singer, particularly one renowned for his voice, but the fans are also to blame for accepting it

the thing about MJ's 90s work is many people say his 90s albums are crap, and then the fans say they aren't and then reel off the hit singles. if you took the albums, and removed the filler so they were more tradition 45 minute albums then they wouldn't attract the same critisism. if you took thriller or bad and filled that to 80 minutes with the leftover tracks they would also suffer the same fate. or as you say you could take the best of the first 90s albums and make a killer 1 disc album

He was superior to Prince, of course. Pretty much the greatest male to ever grace music. If you'd of said somebody such as Elvis, it'd be more debatable.

Madonna, is pretty much the greatest female to ever grace music. Tough to really compare her to Michael Jackson, because together they both arguably changed music more than almost any single person ever has and ever will. There's great's and legends, then there is these two, who simply are on a different level to pretty much everybody else.

I agree

He never kept it up. Same with Prince. Something Madonna always has

Yeah there's just way to much filler for his 90's albums to be in the same league although I still think they are underrated as the best tracks are still excellent.

Also if you go back to the 70's I think his best Motown songs with or without the Jackson 5 give him a lead ahead of Madonna and Prince. Then again I am a massive fan of classic Motown!

I would also include Janet Jackson in this catagory! From 1986-2001 she was almost untouchable & for a time was outperforming her brother commercially & critically! It's easy to forget or overlook her impact especially here in the UK! The Super Bowl 'incident' practically erased her reign from people minds over night!

Janet was losing it by the" All For You" era anyway

Plus Prince was kinda done after Sign O the times period.

Madoinna can still bring it back but Michael lost it after Dangerous which was a real gem of album considering Quincy Jones wasn't producing it.

It fair to say all the legends who have a massive amount of sucesss eventfully like Madonna is the same one we saw and heard from like Ray Of Light era.

Am I the only person who thinks this statement is taking fandom to new heights?

that's just nonsense. in your opinion that's what you may think, but how can someone who mimes on stage and needs other people to write and record his music be considered superior to someone who sings and plays live, and writes all their own material, even plays most if not all the instruments on the album?

madonna and MJ are similar as they need other people to make their music. they can't pull off a great live vocal in concert so used backing tapes. they couldn't pick up a guitar and make people cry with a guitar solo, or sit at the piano in front of tens of thousands of people and play a medley of hits

prince is just on a completely different level, being one of the most talented musicians of all time. the other 2 are just pop acts

i've seen worse

but it is utter nonsense, unless you live in a world free of the beatles, elvis, miles davis, etc

ah, but with the motown period there was a TON of filler. it was like the singles mattered and everything else on the album didn't. and they had even less control over the music on motown. anyone could have done the hits and they would be popular, as it the motown way

Well Madonna certainly pushed the limits of what a popstar was to greater heights. She was the first woman to really embrace image, sex, religion and pop together. MTV once called Madonna the first woman of the music video which is why they gave her the title of Queen Of Pop. Then you have the Blonde Ambition Tour which Rolling Stone in 2000 branded the greatest tour of the 1990s. The Blonde Ambition tour changed the landscape for every pop concert that followed.

So Madonna certainly did change pop. People often try to play down her credits but this shouldn't ever be taken away from her. Without Madonna the likes of Britney, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga wouldn't be where they are today.

musically prince did a lot of great stuff after SOTT, in particular the 93/95 period. commercially he had a lot of hits and success with batman and diamonds and pearls. it was really the post warners period where most people say the music declined, but he did put out a few gems like TRC, ONA, truth, etc although none are commercial in the slightest. but that's where he tends to go wrong, by trying to make commercial music like his old hits. when he ignores that feeling he does the best stuff. i wonder what MJ would have been like if he went off on a marvin gaye tip and came out with his idea of whats going on or something non commercial

hardly. madonna was far from the first. just a few years before madonna you had blondie. what madonna did originally wasn't far from it. and there were piles of other acts in the 60s and 70s doing the same. madonna just came along at a time when videos were prominent and you could rely on making a nice looking video and studio created song instead of having to play live and tour for publicity

if we didn't have britney etc, the world would be a better place, but i don't hold it against madonna as she wasn't really responsible

Actually Madonna was the first. When did Debbie Harry ever do half the stuff Madonna did? when did anyone pre 1990 put on a tour like Blonde Ambition?

There is a reason Madonna is rated so highly, is classed as the Queen Of Pop and has out lasted her peers.